AB 169: The Amazing Technology That Is Changing Education

May 13, 2018

Mark Woodland’s story starts with his mother. She was a school teacher for her entire career. In 2010 Mark’s mother bought a childcare center to support children on their educational journey. Mark left the Australian Army to support his mother in her new business.

Frustrated by the outdated systems and not being able to afford an app developer Mark taught himself to code and over the next few years, Mark developed Xplor. In 2016 Mark and Fay caught the attention of not only the education community but the world at large who had become disenchanted by the childcare industry and lack of support to families; Mark and Fay provided a glimpse of hope, with their innovative approach to education.

Realizing that a greater impact on education could be achieved through improving the software of services in January 2016, Mark and Fay sold their 3 childcare centers. Mark re-invested the money from the sale and Xplor was officially born.

With this investment, the newly incorporated team made the upgrade from childcare office to Xplor’s first office: a small room in Melbourne that seated 4 people. 4 laptop computers, a beanbag, and bright blue t-shirts set the scene for those early days and late nights (the tradition of keeping things colorful continues to this day).

Even in the beginning, things were unconventional: from Xplor’s weird staff games (eating chili sauces) to the interstate trips, captured the spirit of our intentionally unconventional methods. In the year that followed, the company expanded rapidly with Airtree Ventures investing in Xplor — hiring engineers, building a sales team, and introducing the first company pet, Vince.

Xplor outgrew the 4-seat room and eventually moved to our current headquarters (a.k.a. “The Launchpad”) in Melbourne’s Bourke Street. The relentless efforts to change education (our mission still to this day) to find better ways to teach continues to be at the core of everything we do.

Today, with more than 50 employees in 4 different countries, Xplor makes incredible products used by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, from Xplor Care to Xplor Schools. Although we’ve ditched the beanbags and chili sauce, our passion to relentlessly change education by building amazing technology has stayed with us — from the Army Fields, to childcare, and to this very day.